Now the work really starts......

Today's Blog....... First I couldn't speak, now I can't speak. This Tuesday 11th April 2017 I finally had the results of a process which began February 25th 2013. That's 1,508 days. That's a lot of days. But that first date, that's the important one. The day I finally began to find my voice. What followed can only be described at best as horrendous. All victims of sexual crimes are protected by very stringent laws to keep their identity protected. Rightly so, details are intimate, personal, graphic and life changing. But the negative side of this legislation is that if like me within process your are failed either by police officers or the organisation as a whole your blanket of anonymity protects them also. No press release. No reporting. People will never truly know the extent and depth of their failings. Either to personally name officers or to speak of the organisation as a whole who's policy and procedures are flawed or non existent. It is designed to protect me. I wish dearly it didn't protect them. There is so much I wish I could share right now but I simply can't. All I can say is I did it. Finally got justice. I just can't talk about it. But I know and so do they. On the day I had a strange sense of calm and even when the meeting was over I struggled to react. I was numb. I had tensed my body for the impact and couldn't relax. It's been 5 days now and it's all just beginning to settle in. As timing would have it HMIC gave the findings of a PEEL assessment for Gloucestershire Police in the days after my meeting. These are some of the findings : Overview – How effective is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime? Overall judgment2 Requires improvement Gloucestershire Constabulary requires improvement in respect of its effectiveness at keeping people safe and reducing crime. Our overall judgment this year is the same as last year, when we judged the force to require improvement in respect of effectiveness. Although some improvements have been made against HMIC’s 2015 recommendations, progress in other areas has been slow, and insufficient to warrant an improved grade. The force needs to improve its approach to preventing crime and anti-social behaviour, its investigative standards and the protection it provides to vulnerable people. Its management of serious and organised crime is inadequate and must be addressed urgently. Gloucestershire Police have far to go in terms of how they engage with victims of sexual crime. I watched an interview yesterday with Chris Brierley the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Gloucestershire Police responding to HMIC PEEL Assessment he challenged the language used seemingly fixated on the use of the term " serious concern ". I have serious concern too, as a victim who has the lived experience of these failings that you concentrate on the language used and not the opportunities for your force to learn. Have you heard of the term "He doth protest too much"? For there to be learning and progress you have to own your mistakes, otherwise no learning no progress. It's a funny thing. Clearly reflected in the inability to improve on last years poor grade. Same as last year. So I guess there is still more to be done. A clever man involved in this process the next day sent me the following quote : “This is not the end, this is not even the beginning of the end, this is just perhaps the end of the beginning.” #gloucestershirepolice #failingvictims #sexualcrime #victimsvoices #speakingup